Metropolitan Police Service: Unified Services Procurement for the Digital Public Contact Programme

Description

The contracting Authority (the "Authority") in relation to this notice is the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime ("MOPAC"), on behalf of the Metropolitan Police Service ("MPS") and wider UK policing organisations. The Authority is undertaking a procurement for the managed services to support, operate, maintain and enhance an existing Digital Public Contact ("DPC") platform and associated services. The Unified Services Procurement ("USP") platform provides access to critical national public capability, through which members of the public access policing services digitally across England and Wales. The USP supports the delivery of public-facing digital services across participating policing organisations, and enables members of the public to report incidents, provide and receive information, and access policing services through secure and accessible digital channels. The USP enables each force to deliver a range of nationally consistent online services to the public, whilst maintaining their distinct own local identity. The Authority is not seeking to procure an end-to-end replacement platform. The procurement is focused on the effective operation, support and ongoing evolution of the existing capability, including the delivery of enhancements, new functionality and associated service improvements throughout the contract term. The Authority's priority for this procurement is to deliver (under a single contract) a run and maintain service in a more efficient manner for its stakeholders and end users. The procurement will consolidate and enhance existing delivered services, thereby streamlining delivery, modernising key components, and strategically positioning the USP platform to support significant policing reforms and future service evolution. The DPC programme is guided by the following key strategic imperatives: 1) Policing Reform: adapting to significant structural changes, including potential force consolidation and the formation of a National Police Service ("NPS"). For further details, please refer to the 'From local to national: a new model for policing' white paper. 2) Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence ("AI"): embracing AI to enhance public contact through AI-based reporting, AI analysis, conversational AI, and intelligent assistance. 3) Identity and Personalisation: moving towards authenticated, personalised, and context-aware services, leveraging user accounts (with user authentication via GOV.UK One Login) for tailored experiences. 4) Channel Convergence: achieving a consistent and unified experience across web, chat, and voice channels for "first contact" with policing. The core service delivery for the USP primarily involves the provision and maintenance of the DPC platform current capabilities, specifically the following core services: 1) Website Front End and Public Digital Channels: provision of the public-facing digital channels that support access to policing information and services, comprising the Single Online Home ("SOH"), Police.uk and the National My Police Portal ("NMPP"). SOH provides the primary digital front door for policing, enabling crime and incident reporting, access to advice and guidance, neighbourhood policing engagement, and performance information through a consistent, locally branded user experience. Police.uk provides the national policing website and aggregation layer, supporting consistent access to information and services across force boundaries. NMPP provides a secure, authenticated portal through which users can track cases, receive updates and communicate with officers, enabling ongoing two-way digital engagement between the public and policing. 2) Chat Services and AI-Assisted Engagement: offering chat services and developing AI-based solutions for natural language reporting, triage, and guidance. 3) Website Supporting Services: the operational and technical services that sit behind the public-facing website and forms experience, enabling transactions to be processed, monitored, secured and delivered to policing systems. 4) Integration and Data Exchange (iHub): facilitating data exchange between public-facing services and force/national systems, using a Standard Data Model. 5) StreetSafe and Analytics and Insights Services: providing various dashboards for demand, usage, and performance metrics. 6) Open Data: managing and publishing open data about crime and policing (data.police.uk) and local neighbourhood information. 7) Operator Assist and Management Assist: these services introduce AI-enabled capabilities to support policing operations. Operator Assist focuses on real-time support for contact centre staff, including analysis of live calls and provision of guidance. Management Assist focuses on post-event analysis, generating insights from recorded data. In addition to the core services outlined above, Bidders will be requested to provide separate pricing for a range of optional services which the Authority may choose to utilise during the contract term to support future enhancements and wider DPC transformation. Bidders will be required to show their capability in this area. The Bidder that submits the most advantageous tender will also have the potential to deliver project and change work, based on delivery of the Core Services, at the Authority's sole discretion. The existing DPC platform leverages a mix of technologies. Key tooling includes Optimizely Digital Experience Platform ("DXP") for website content management, a bespoke React-based forms engine for public data capture, and an AWS integration platform. The NMPP is built on AWS, utilising GOV.UK One Login for authentication and GOV.UK Notify for communications. Chat Services use Cisco Webex Engage or locally provisioned products. For analytics and monitoring, tools such as Power BI, Google Analytics 4, Splunk, and Azure Sentinel are in use. Development is supported by Azure DevOps, and Cloudflare provides essential security and edge services. While this landscape reflects our current environment and does not require re-platforming at this time, specific components may necessitate modernisation during the contract term. The Authority published a Preliminary Market Engagement ("PME") Notice for this opportunity on 12 May 2026 (updated 15 May 2026) reference: Notice identifier: 2026/S 000-045079. PME was subsequently conducted in the form of: • Market briefing event (with open question and answer session) on 9 June 2026; and • Market Sounding Questionnaire. The Authority's outputs from the PME are available in the PSQ data room and can be accessed following completion and signature of mandatory Non-Disclosure and Ethical Walls Agreements following your registration of interest in the procurement. Interested parties will also need to complete these documents to access a sequential Coupa event to enable them to submit a response to this Request to Participate. The procurement is being conducted using the Competitive Flexible Procedure in accordance with Section 20(1) and Section 20(2)(b) of the Procurement Act 2023. The anticipated procurement timetable for subsequent tender stages is included in the Request to Participate. The Authority anticipates that the single supplier delivery model will provide a robust foundation to support the Home Office reform agenda into the NPS following the end of the contract term, and any future procurement strategies or objectives at that point.